Climate crisis is probably the defining issue of our time, and this has been highlighted in some recently released groundbreaking climate-related documentaries as well as through the tension at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Climate crisis becomes more topical every year, not only because every year we are a little closer to environmental disaster, but also because an increase in climate disasters, better scientific understanding of our world and a growing number of climate activists are bringing sustainability into the spotlight. 2019 was a hot year for climate change in the media, with devastating wildfires in Australia and the Amazon rainforest and, for many young people around the world, Greta Thunberg’s message was almost messianic.

One of the biggest obstacles preventing cultures from adopting sustainable practices has been capitalism. Capitalism incentivises growth, which means production and consumption. Documentaries and films, fictional or not, that highlight where our economic systems, big businesses and governments fail are essential.

“But just imagine…”. That is the refrain that most succinctly sums up the message of the Australian environmental documentary 2040. The current environmental discourse surrounding the future is overtly negative: when you look at global consumption statistics or climate projections, it’s difficult not to picture future generations growing up in a desolate and sweltering world, choking on the smog we left behind.

The documentary 2040 moves away from this horrifying vision of the future, and pitches us the futuristic urban utopia we all wish we could believe in. The director, Damon Gameau, calls the film an exercise in fact-based dreaming, and asks the question: “What would the world be like in 2040 if we just implemented the solutions which already exist?”

The film opens with an intimate introduction to Gameau’s four-year-old daughter Velvet, and the innocent world she knows. Velvet is the centre of a running narrative throughout the film – a concerned father, searching and fighting for a better future for his beloved little girl.

Every time Gameau discovers a new potential solution for an environmental challenge, it is followed by an overacted scene of Velvet as a young adult, living in an ideal world in which this solution has been successfully implemented on a large scale. These enactments, while trite, are fun and inspiring, and probably intentionally exaggerated. The film has a light, humorous tone and special effects are used liberally. When scientific ideas are explained (always in layman’s terms) the experts explaining them often appear as tiny figures sitting on regular objects.

​Gameau has a rule for the solutions he explores – they must already exist. He researches the solar energy sharing system used in parts of Bangladesh in which households host small devices called Solboxes, which connect to one another, enabling households to buy, sell and share electricity within a growing community.

All the electricity produced is from personal solar panels – it is clean, off-the-grid energy – and has allowed impoverished communities who would not normally be able to afford electricity or a solar panel to buy power from their neighbours when they need it. It’s a mutually beneficial system which keeps capital in the economy, reduces pressure on municipalities, is cheaper to use and is better for the environment.

The narrator explores similarly innovative solutions, including autonomous vehicles, marine permaculture, and importantly, female empowerment. Near the end of the film, the narrative relating to his daughter Velvet becomes increasingly relevant.

Gameau supports the growing view of feminist environmentalism, the notion that, “The number one solution of reducing global warming is the empowerment of girls and women”(as explained by sustainability expert, Paul Hawken, in the film). The basis for this claim is that the empowerment of women is inversely proportional to the amount of children they have, and one of the biggest things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is to have fewer children. This ties into the interdisciplinary nature of environmentalism – once you start investing in greener practices there are benefits to other societal areas as well.

Overall, 2040 is uplifting and entertaining. The simulated predictions of what 2040 would look like were we to implement the solutions explored in the film are optimistic and contingent on massive “what-ifs”, but they do offer a valuable shift in perspective. The film is a gentle call to action – the solutions we are looking for are already out there, and their implementation, rather than being a sacrifice, would benefit us. Rather than fall into despair and disengage, support greener living when you can and put pressure on those in power to utilise the creative answers that some people have already found.

Read more.......

Spain's new government on Tuesday declared a "climate emergency" and pledged to unveil a draft bill on transitioning to renewable energy within its first 100 days in office.
In a statement announced after the weekly cabinet meeting, the government committed to bringing a draft bill "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the objective of reaching climate neutrality by 2050" -- effectively net-zero carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's leftwing coalition government, which took office on January 13, also committed to updating the national plan for tackling climate change.

The government has decided to ensure that "climate change and the transition is the cornerstone for all (ministerial) departments and governmental action," spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told reporters.

Environment Minister Teresa Ribera said the government had been inspired by French moves to create a public advisory panel "to generate ideas about responding to climate change in an inclusive, consultative way with a special focus on the youth."

Last summer, France announced the creation of a citizens' panel on climate change made up of 150 people who would offer ideas and views on an array of issues touching on climate change "in keeping with the spirit of social justice".

At the end of November, the European Parliament voted to declare a "climate and environment emergency" in a symbolic gesture just ahead of the UN global crisis summit which took place in Madrid last month

The motion urged efforts to ensure the "objective of limiting global warming to under 1.5 degrees C (35.7 degrees Fahrenheit)".

It was followed by similar moves in a number of parliaments across the EU, notably in France, the United Kingdom and in Austria.

Source......

By Kevin Bloom - Daily Maverick
If history brings insight and insight brings clarity, 2020 must be the year humanity responds with effective action to the greatest threat it has ever faced. From Rockefeller’s Standard Oil to Exxon Mobil and our own coal sector, the fossil fuel industry has consistently beaten the lawmakers — now our world is on fire. But with rich nations like Australia suddenly on the climate frontlines, the courts may be ready to push back. For South Africans, who’ll be directly affected by a raft of climate-related cases set down for 2020, the outcome couldn’t be more personal.

“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”

Two centuries back, when the French novelist Honore de Balzac wrote these words, the stakes were lower. The sixth mass extinction was not yet a lived reality, the polar ice caps were not yet disappearing into the sea and Paris, Balzac’s hometown, was not sweltering in 40°C summer heat. Anthropogenic carbon emissions, or what there were of them, came mostly from oil lamps, wood fires and coal stoves — James Watt’s steam engine, although commercialised, was three decades away from ushering in the industrial age. The world may or may not have been a happier place, but it was more or less intact.

By the late 1800s, around the time that Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius was calculating the connection between C02 emissions and the Earth’s temperature — a doubling in greenhouse gas content, the Nobel laureate concluded, would heat the planet by 5-6°C — the system was primed for the great unravelling.

Because what was clear, even then, was that the law had been outgunned by the energy industry. The Standard Oil Company, the world’s first major fossil fuel conglomerate, had eliminated the competition to seize control of 95% of US oil production, and the government was trying to break the company up. But founder John D Rockefeller had created a maze of holding structures and trusts, which rendered Standard Oil impervious to public investigation.

“You could argue its existence from its effects,” wrote Ida Tarbell in her celebrated history of the conglomerate, “but you could not prove it.”

Tarbell may have been familiar with Balzac’s metaphor about spiders and flies. She had faced the commercial Machiavellianism of the Gilded Age head-on, when her father — a small oil producer — had refused Rockefeller’s offer of a buy-out. Her personal experience of the consequences of that decision had gestated for 30 years, until she parlayed it into what Smithsonian Magazine termed a “redefinition” of investigative journalism: a 19-part series (and book) that unearthed the kickbacks, collusions and conspiracies upon which Rockefeller had built his empire. In the end, Tarbell’s muckraking achieved what the US government, acting alone, could not — by the time she was done, Standard Oil was no more.

Fast forward 120 years, past the short-lived hiatus of the Progressive Era (when, thanks in no small part to Tarbell, social and political reform held out for once against Big Money), and Balzac’s metaphor was back with a vengeance. In late October 2019, Exxon Mobil found itself in the New York State Supreme Court, on charges of lying to its shareholders about the potential future costs of the climate crisis. On its merits, the case was sound, with the state prosecutor leaning on the ground-breaking work of journalists to argue that “the company failed to manage the risks in the way it promised.” But the judge, who refused to recuse himself after it was revealed that he held $250,000 in Exxon stock, dismissed the case on 10 December 2019, ruling that there was “no proof” the company had duped investors.

Read more.....

​

For those who do not believe in climate change being a man made problem, listen to this!!

A new report has been released in an effort to mobilise South Africans behind the vision of creating a million ‘climate jobs’ as part of the country’s response to the threat posed by climate change.
Published by the Alternative Information and Development Centre, the 60-page report has been produced under the banner of the ‘One Million Climate Jobs Campaign’, an alliance of South Africa labour and social movements, as well as popular organisations established in 2011 to coincide with Durban’s hosting of the United Nations climate change conference.
The report’s editor, Jonathan Neale, says climate jobs are defined as those jobs that will help stop the world from heating up, which, in South Africa, will mostly be associated with renewable energy, public transport, electric vehicle manufacture, construction and agriculture.
The report estimates that a transition from South Africa’s coal-based electricity system over a 20-year horizon could create 250 000 direct jobs at wind and solar farms, but especially in the renewable-energy supply chain.

Read more......

AIDC would like to invite you to a morning seminar to launch our new One Million Climate Jobs booklet.
In an initial OMCJ booklet in 2011 we argued that globally we are facing an environmental crisis and an economic crisis and that the creation of a million climate jobs was an opportunity to address both problems jointly. In the six years since there have been many developments – such as renewable energy being established as part of the electricity supply mix of South Africa and its rapid decline in cost; the development of environmentally friendly construction methods and the roll-out of the Rapid Bus Transit system in some  municipalities. But it is not enough.
Today, the threat of accelerating climate change and the damage it is already doing to our ecosystems is ever more evident. Climate change exacerbates inequality and poverty by reducing access to food, water, energy and housing. We urgently need to make changes to our economic system and various forms of production before they destroys our life-support system.
AIDC is an NGO formed in 1996 in response to the new opportunities and challenges that the democratic transition brought for those seeking social justice. AIDC has played a leading role in various civil society responses to ongoing inequality, including the launch and building of the South African Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign and the Right to Work Campaign. In 2011 AIDC was central to launching the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign, an alliance of South African labour, social movements and popular organisations to campaign for jobs as central to the national response to climate change.
This booklet presents well- researched solutions for South Africa to immediately begin a just transition away from the Minerals-Energy Complex initiated under colonialism, that continues to dominate our capitalist economy, to one in which all basic needs of communities are met equitably and affordably. We know that transition will not be easy and need to ensure that it is not an additional threat or burden for workers and the poor.
With the international negotiations of COP 23 imminent, it is clear that we cannot rely on governments and big business to make the changes that are necessary to avoid climate catastrophe, much less to ensure that there is a just transition. With Donald Trump pulling the USA out of the Paris Agreement, it is all the more evident that we need to revitalize initiatives like the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign.
This is an open invitation to a seminar where key findings in the booklet will be discussed. Please RSVP to richard.worthington@telkomsa.net  additional information by telephone: 082 446 6392.
6 November 2017
VENUE: Vulindlela Auditorium at the DBSA, Midrand
1258 Lever Rd, Headway Hill, – off the Oliefantsfontein Rd exit from M1/N1, west of M1
 
Registration and refreshments from 08h15;   Light lunch with networking 12h00 – 13h00
The publication is available electronically on request and plenty of hardcopies will be available at the event.
 
Please would you share the attached invitation with any in Gauteng who may be interested?

Richard Worthington
AIDC (Jhb)
082 446 6392

The climate crisis needs the equivalent of a moon shot.

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognize the opportunity.” —John F. Kennedy, 1959

JFK shared this quote at a time of great uncertainty in the world. The Cold War was being waged and many lived in constant fear of nuclear warfare. Although Kennedy was technically mistaken in his translation, he was right about the sentiment of those words, which remain truer today than ever.

Take one of our greatest global crises, climate change. We don’t need any more reminders about the dangers posed by this threat, but what about the opportunities? During a recent panel discussion in New York, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson addressed this very topic. (Operating an airline might not make Branson the best person positioned to discuss environmental matters, but if there’s one thing he knows well, it’s business.)

"The knock-on effect to the global economy is enormous," Branson exclaimed, citing, for example, the potential money saved on fuel by switching to alternative sources of energy. From reductions in medical expenses to increased income, Branson said, "pushing to be carbon neutral should not only be the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense."

Sounds great in theory, but how do we get there? For Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), it will require a serious shift in national policy. "We need a level of leadership similar to efforts of a previous generation that put a man on the moon," Levin told a packed University of Michigan auditorium. "We need our own moon shot—to develop alternatives to petroleum and to make more efficient use of all forms of energy."

Unfortunately, by that measure, America is losing the race to China. According to a recent Bloomberg New Energy Finance study, China invested $287.5 billion in clean energy in 2016, compared to just $58.6 billion spent in the U.S. That's not to mention the $360 billion China's energy agency plans to spend on alternative energy in the next three years.

"In the past we thought government and social sector would sort out these problems," said Branson in reference to this problem. As a result, he continued, "business has to step forward to fill certain gaps that governments are leaving behind."

Branson's point was reflected by the increased presence of the private sector at COP21 conference in 2016. In fact, according to a report published by the World Bank, CEOs from a number of industries made pledges to “decrease their carbon footprint, buy more renewable energy and engage in sustainable resource management." Global financial institutions further “pledged to make hundreds of billions of new investment over the next 15 years in clean energy and energy efficiency."

Of course, making a pledge is not the same thing as actual implementation. And even then, there is still the matter of managing the existing natural resources that help to absorb carbon dioxide emissions. But let's just imagine "what if" for a moment. If such promises were implemented holistically, they could present a number of incredible opportunities. Here are five of them.

1. Cheaper renewable energy.

The principle of "economies of scale" dictates that a certain idea or technology requires a large enough level of adoption to become affordable. For this reason, it has taken society decades to stop using fossil fuels. But as more companies start to go green due to climate change and the introduction of carbon pricing—which charges companies tax for releasing greenhouse gases—renewable energy is getting more profitable by the day.

A recent study cited by Dimitris Tsitsiragos, vice president of New Business at the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, in an article republished by the World Bank, sampled 1,700 leading international firms that on average enjoyed an “an internal rate of return of 27 percent" thanks to their reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. As that trend continues, renewable energy is set to become increasingly ubiquitous in society.

2. Which means new opportunities for renewable energy industries.

It’s time to open our eyes and prepare for the world that’s coming.
In all of U.S. history, there’s never been a storm like Hurricane Harvey. That fact is increasingly clear, even though the rains are still falling and the water levels in Houston are still rising.

But there’s an uncomfortable point that, so far, everyone is skating around: We knew this would happen, decades ago. We knew this would happen, and we didn’t care. Now is the time to say it as loudly as possible: Harvey is what climate change looks like. More specifically, Harvey is what climate change looks like in a world that has decided, over and over, that it doesn’t want to take climate change seriously.

Houston has been sprawling out into the swamp for decades, largely unplanned and unzoned. Now, all that pavement has transformed the bayous into surging torrents and shunted Harvey’s floodwaters toward homes and businesses. Individually, each of these subdivisions or strip malls might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in aggregate, they’ve converted the metro area into a flood factory. Houston, as it was before Harvey, will never be the same again.

Harvey is the third 500-year flood to hit the Houston area in the past three years, but Harvey is in a class by itself. By the time the storm leaves the region on Wednesday, an estimated 40 to 60 inches of rain will have fallen on parts of Houston. So much rain has fallen already that the National Weather Service had to add additional colors to its maps to account for the extreme totals.

Harvey is infusing new meaning into meteorologists’ favorite superlatives: There are simply no words to describe what has happened in the past few days. In just the first three days since landfall, Harvey has already doubled Houston’s previous record for the wettest month in city history, set during the previous benchmark flood, Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001. For most of the Houston area, in a stable climate, a rainstorm like Harvey is not expected to happen more than once in a millennium.
Read more......

It’s no secret that we need to make significant changes if we’re going to preserve our planet. As humans make more of an impact on the earth, the planet is changing in significant, alarming ways.

Sea levels are rising. Global temperatures are slowly increasing. The oceans are getting incrementally warmer. Ice sheets around the world are shrinking. Glaciers are retreating, extreme weather events are on the rise, there is less snow cover, and overall pollution levels keep increasing,

The challenge, however, is that the population is also increasing. The global population is increasing at a rate of approximately 1.1% every year, with about 80 million people being added. In places like China, that growth rate is even larger. 

Thankfully, there are solutions on the horizon, with some available even now. Green, environmentally friendly solutions are gaining popularity and media exposure. Recently, the Energy Observer, the world’s first completely renewal energy and hydrogen powered boat, began a journey around the world. This comes on heels of the Solar Impulse, a solar powered plane, completing an around the world journey. 

Read more.......